1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for and method of evaluating crop performance, and more specifically, relates to a system operable to evaluate performance on an individual plant basis.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Growers are continually pursuing strategies that will improve the yield and profit of their planted crops. In addition to assessing uncontrollable factors such as weather and markets, cropping strategies must also consider and understand controllable factors, such as field operations. The field operations can include the type of tillage, the spacing between plants, and the planting date of the crop. Careful planning and management decisions are critical for profitable growers. These crop management decisions can become quite complex for a grower or agronomist to make.
Unfortunately, there are few computer-based tools to help growers make these critical decisions. Although today's growers typically have access to powerful personal computers, there is a need for development of software as a tool for growers to make critical decisions in managing the planting of their crops. Known agricultural-related software typically only perform record-keeping and accounting functions. However, the algorithms employed in these certain known software are not utilized as a predictive tool for growers to make crop management decisions. Other known agricultural software as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,459 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,998,877 are utilized to predict a profit using specific mathematical models dependent on a type of crop planted on a field. However, these certain known software tools are not are not capable of assisting growers as a predictive evaluation tool in making crop stand quality management decisions (e.g., soil bed preparation, planting spacing, planting date).
Therefore, there is a need by growers for system that overcomes the drawbacks described above. The system should also be simple so as used by growers or sales people with very little or no agronomic science background. The system should also be a reliable predictive tool in providing a difference in yield and profit associated with implementing different plant stand management strategies. In addition, the system should be configured to be utilized with management strategies to improve yield associated with growing a wide variety of crops (e.g., soybean, beets, etc.) or agricultural animals (e.g., sheep, pigs, chickens, etc.).